Posted on July 2, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Filed under: Corporate Strategy | Detroit Breakdown | Divesting and Restructuring
Tagged: chrysler , general motors , NADA

Can auto dealers do anything to fight back against the mass closings ordered by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC, and the changes being required of those dealers who are retaining their franchises? Not a whole lot, according to National Automobile Dealer's Association chairman John McEleney, speaking on CNBC...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 2, 2009 at 11:00 AM
Filed under: Joint Ventures and Alliances
Tagged: Astellas Pharma , Lazard & Co. , Maxygen

Biotechnology firm Maxygen Inc. (NASDAQ:MAXY) has gotten a life-saving assist from Astellas Pharma Inc. of Japan. The companies are forming a joint venture that will keep Maxygen operating in a brutal market for developmental stage biotechs with no marketable products and sky-high R&D costs.  As this Deal Pipeline timeline shows (subscription required),...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 2, 2009 at 10:43 AM
Filed under: Corporate Strategy | Detroit Breakdown | Divesting and Restructuring
Tagged: cato institute , general motors corp.

The deadline is July 10. The Feds won't fund bankrupt General Motors Corp. past then, we learned Wednesday, so unless the court approves a 363 sale and the creation of the new GM by, let's see, a week from Friday, we're looking at liquidation. This and much more about what...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 2, 2009 at 10:11 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Careers | Deal International | Growth Strategy | Middle market | Movers & Shakers | People | Sector Watch | Trends
Tagged: Alan Murray , Bank of America , Barclays , David Asmus , Evercore Partners , Gazprom , Morgan Lewis & Bockius , PetroChina , Robert Pacha , Sinopec , Societe Generale

Strategics in the oil sector feeling an economic upturn is in sight have been running to the deal table as valuations are still a bit depressed. In turn, investment banks and law firms alike have responded by hiring as they look to reign in M&A advisory fees.Some big deals have...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 2, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Filed under: Acquisitions
Tagged: Medialink Worldwide , The NewsMarket

In a deal marrying traditional and new media marketing companies, the NewsMarket announced Wednesday it intends to acquire Medialink Worldwide Inc. (NASDAQ:MDLK). The NewsMarket provides digital media services to help corporate and government clients communicate with clients through video, while Medialink provides television, radio and Internet news and market media...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 2, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Filed under: Corporate Strategy | Divesting and Restructuring
Tagged: BHP Billiton , Rio Tinto

The Deal Pipeline (subscription required) shows investors signed up to buy 96.97% of new Rio Tinto Group stock, worth about £7.1 billion ($11.7 billion). Though this helps quite a bit with its massive debt burden -- mostly incurred from its $38 billion acquisition of aluminum company Alcan in 2007...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 4:00 PM
Filed under: Best Practices | CD Community
Tagged: booz & co. , ernst & young llp

Nobody needs to be told that we're in the midst of an epic financial crunch. So why do so many companies have to be reminded to pull their socks up and manage their working capital more efficiently? How can these major organizations, world class in so many respects, continue to...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 3:37 PM
Filed under: Joint Ventures and Alliances
Tagged: JAKKS Pacific , Joint Venture , THQ , World Wrestling Entertainment , WWE

Add another round to the three-way grudge match between Jakks Pacific Inc. (NASDAQ:JAKK), THQ Inc. (NASDAQ:THQI) and World Wrestling Entertainment. At issue is a WWE video game license owned by a joint venture operated by toymaker Jakks and video game publisher THQ. Jakks on Wednesday said it intended to exercise an...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 3:05 PM
Filed under: Middle market | People | Sector Watch | Trends
Tagged: Brian Fan , Deloitte , Greentech Capital Advisors , Jeffrey McDermott , The Cleantech Group , UBS , venture capital

After a recent falloff, it looks like the cleantech sector is showing signs of a turnaround. The Cleantech Group, a provider of global market research, events and advisory services for the cleantech sector, along with Deloitte, released preliminary second-quarter results for clean technology venture investments in North America, Europe, China...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 2:52 PM
Filed under: Corporate Strategy | Divesting and Restructuring | Joint Ventures and Alliances
Tagged: paramount , Viacom Inc.

The business is profitable but not growing, and one of these days it will start shrinking. Several rivals are in exactly the same boat.It's a classic recipe for co-opetition -- in this case, combining manufacturing and back-office operations in a joint venture with one or more rivals to cut costs,...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 1:12 PM
Filed under: Acquisitions | Best Practices | CD Community
Tagged: chorey , earnouts , taylor & feil

In the current tough climate for deals, acquirers are increasingly using earnouts as part of the purchase price, which is why I've discussed the topic in a couple of recent magazine columns. The first, Arguments postponed, warns of disputes and litigation down the road for some of these dealmakers. The...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Filed under: Joint Ventures and Alliances
Tagged: Advent International , Bank of America Corp. , Fifth Third Bancorp , First Data Corp , Joint Venture

Fifth Third Bancorp  (NASDAQ:FITB) and the private equity firm Advent International Corp. have completed their $2.35 billion processing joint venture. As The Deal Pipeline subscribers learned in March, Advent agreed to acquire 51% of the Cincinnati bank's payment processing division for $561 million in cash. Fifth Third loaned $1.25 billion...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 9:40 AM
Filed under: Deal International | Intellectual property | Research and development
Tagged: Laboratorios Farmaceuticos Rovi , licensing , Novavax

With big pharmaceutical companies looking to load their pipelines and biotechnology firms looking for capital to keep afloat, licensing deals between the two are a mainstay of the industry. And as such, not every deal gets a mention here. But a transaction announced Tuesday involving Novavex Inc. (NASDAQ:NVAX) and the...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 9:14 AM
Filed under: Corporate Strategy | Divesting and Restructuring | Middle market
Tagged: AB InBev , Ball Corp. , beer distributors , Carlos Brito , CVC Capital , KKR , Labatt , Oriental Brewery , Tsingtao Brewery

On March 5, Anheuser-Busch InBev said it would divest about $7 billion worth of assets to deal with short-term debt after the November Euro-U.S. merger of InBev SA and St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos., which created the world's No. 1 brewer. It's full debt load after the deal was $45 billion.Most...  Continue reading

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Posted on July 1, 2009 at 8:39 AM
Filed under: Careers | Corporate Strategy | Middle market | Movers & Shakers | People
Tagged: AOL , Colbert Narcisse , FDIC , Gregory Webster , HSBC , Ivar Eilertsen , Ken Kharbanda , Merrill Lynch , Petrina Dawson , Thomas Shelton

With advice from M&A veterans such as Merrill Lynch & Co.'s former COO of Americas investment banking, Colbert Narcisse, and Ken Kharbanda, AOL LLC's former head of corporate development, startup People Capital is looking to address a growing problem in the U.S. resulting form the economic crisis. The firm is...  Continue reading

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